Category Archives: Music

The Waifs’ Up All Night

The Waifs have an interesting back-story of months and years spent travelling the byways of their native Australia, playing in bars and on the streets, honing their skills — instrumental, vocal and songwriting. That hard apprenticeship accounts for the strength … Continue reading

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Kristin Mooney’s Kristin Mooney

Kristin Mooney has made a contemporary folk album that defies easy categorization. The Minneapolis native has spent time in Nashville, but it doesn’t seem to have hurt her any. For this collection of a dozen songs, all of which she … Continue reading

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The Kennedys’ Stand

Pete and Maura Kennedy are back with another healthy dose of their signature brand of upbeat, spiritual folk-rock. Stand is their sixth release since 1994, and their first for Koch. The Kennedys’ music is similar in tone to that of … Continue reading

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Hair of the Dog’s Release the Hounds, At The Parting Glass, and Let It Flow

There’s something in the American soul, I think, that makes us all want to hop in the car and just drive somewhere far away, spend a few hours there, and then drive somewhere else, maybe farther away or maybe a … Continue reading

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Shane MacGowan’s Popes’ Across the Broad Atlantic

Yet ‘nother CD featuring the vocal talents of Shane MacGowan, a man whose appearance would scare even the most hardened member of the Unseelie Court, showed up here for review this past week. (The photo on the Across The Broad … Continue reading

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Phil Cunningham, Kevin Burke, Susan McKeown, Aidan Brennan, Seamus Egan, and Solas’ Memorial Concert for Johnny Cunningham

Phil Cunningham sat alone on the large stage, eyes closed, as he wrung a slow, sad air from his custom Borsini accordion in memory of his brother Johnny. The Faerieworlds Festival crowd of several hundred, which moments before had been … Continue reading

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Steve Reel’s Celtic Knights and The Unfortunate Rakes’ Rakes Alive!

This review was contributed by Mike Stiles. These two CDs benchmark the glorious growth of the guitar in Celtic music. I encourage those readers who haven’t yet checked out the Celtic scene to do so by bouncing off some familiar … Continue reading

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Cordelia’s Dad’s What it is

Cordelia’s Dad is an indie rock band whose members have an ongoing love affair with really old-time American music. Throughout the 1990s they produced a series of albums that swung from punk to acoustic old-time and unaccompanied shape-note songs. On … Continue reading

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Peggy Seeger’s Heading For Home

Peggy Seeger is a member of one of the pre-eminent families of music in America. The Seeger clan and their collaborators (and sometimes antagonists) the Lomaxes, together are largely responsible for the survival and revival of American folk music in … Continue reading

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The Men They Couldn’t Hang’s The Cherry Red Jukebox

“Well Cracklin’ Rosie said Let’s Get it On (won’t you Bang a Gong) / with a wall of sound and Da Doo Ron Ron / Gasoline Alley, Roll Away the Stone / Yeah, we’re singing Elvis all the way home.” … Continue reading

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